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Never too late to turn around Labor's prospects: Latham

TIM PALMER: Mark Latham was the leader of Federal Labor from December 2003 until January 2005.

He's previously written about Labor personalities and policies in his now infamous memoir, The Latham Diaries.

Today his latest effort is out in the Quarterly Essay. It's called "Not Dead Yet". He says it's not too late for Federal Labor or the Prime Minister to turn their fortunes around.

In the meantime, he suggests that the man he calls the "destabiliser-in-chief", Kevin Rudd, could instead be of real value to the Government if harnessed to sell its climate change policies.

Mr Latham spoke to chief political correspondent Sabra Lane.

MARK LATHAM: Well no, it's never too late in politics. I can remember an opposition leader at the beginning of 2004 who was 10 points ahead on the two party preferred vote and then lost by six.

In politics substance pushes through and the substance of the Australian political debate should be about the economy. Now of course Western Australia is different, but even there the two leaders, Barnett and McGowan, have acknowledged that the result was overwhelmingly a product of a state issues.

SABRA LANE: The Australian Workers' Union secretary Paul Howes who's previously been quite critical of you says the ideas in your Quarterly Essay should be debated, except those recommendations regarding union influence and diluting union influence.

What happens if Labor isn't able to or willing to do that?

MARK LATHAM: Well I acknowledge in my Quarterly Essay that while it's desirable that Labor would break the union link, it's not going to happen in practice. So what we need is enlightened union leadership within the Labor Party to acknowledge that unions perhaps comprise only 10 per cent of the voting public these days and you need to broaden the political party much more.

So we have had that enlightened leadership from the next generation of Labor activists. Sam Dastyari in New South Wales has put forward the community pre-selection model, primary voters, where people in the general public can have their say.

And I think that's a very good reform, where you become a Labor MP, not by getting the nod from a factional union leader but by proving your community credentials.

SABRA LANE: You also argue that it would be good politics to put Kevin Rudd in charge of the Climate Change Department now, make him climate change minister, and that the party find a way to persuade the public about this issue.

Why? Why do you argue those things?

MARK LATHAM: Well Rudd is a very good public persuader. He can argue the case. He once said climate change was the great moral challenge of our time. And I would appeal to him that it's a much better use of his talents and capacities in life to undertake a very important job like that.

It is the big issue for the next 50, 100 years. Much better utilisation of Rudd's talents than being Labor's destabiliser-in-chief, causing all this mischief off the backbench. So it's time for him and others to pull their heads in and put him in a job where he can do something useful for the country for a change.

SABRA LANE: Do you think he'd be better placed there than taking over the reins of the party itself?

MARK LATHAM: Well there aren't too many examples where these last minute leadership changes are productive. You mentioned the Western Australian result. They got rid of Eric Ripper, the Labor leader, who had wonderful economic credibility. Barnett's weakness was on the fiscal management. And they put in McGowan, the Labor Party put in Mark McGowan, who came up with an expensive transport plan that wasn't costed properly and their economic credibility suffered.

So, you know, these last minute changes, when have they ever worked successfully? Not in Canberra, not in New South Wales, not in Western Australia. If you want to repeat those mistakes you're free to but surely people can learn the lessons of history.

SABRA LANE: Your ideas, they're not new, but I guess it's the first time that they've been synthesised into one essay. If the polls are right, the party is headed for a major defeat in September. Is that perhaps what it will take for the party to embrace change?

MARK LATHAM: Well you'd hate to see that because so many good people lose their spot in Parliament. But it's also true to say that working with a clean slate means there's less resistance to reform.

In New South Wales post the state defeat there's a chance for young reformers to come through and remake the party in light of the ICAC inquiry and other disgraceful scandals that's urgently needed.

So there is less resistance to change in the wake of a heavy defeat. I don't want to see that in September but certainly reformers, good-minded people, good-hearted people in the labour movement should be getting ready for significant reform. No matter the result in September, they should be getting ready for significant reform after the federal election and if they don't do that, then they just perpetuate the problems that we've got at the moment.

TIM PALMER: The former Federal Labor leader Mark Latham.

And there'll be a longer version of that interview with Sabra Lane on our website later today.

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